McCreedy Kicks off St. Paddy’s Day (and 2013) with a Win

By Stephen Tobey at ringside

Lowell, Mass. – Thanks to an hour-and-14-minute delay in the start of the show, Joe McCreedy got to officially fight on St. Patrick’s Day. McCreedy, of Lowell, captured the vacant UBF U.S.- Northeast light heavyweight championship with an eight-round majority decision over Michael Walchuk, of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, early Sunday morning at the Tsongas Center.

Carlos Ortiz Jr. scored the fight 76-76. Glenn Feldman scored it 78-74 and Leo Gerstel scored it 77-75 for McCreedy, who is now 14-6-2 with six knockouts. Walchuk dropped to 9-9 (2).

The first bell for McCreedy’s fight was at12:50 a.m. and the decision was announced at1:25 a.m. The show, scheduled to start at 8 p.m., did not begin until 9:14 p.m. One of the reasons for the delays was difficulty finding stools for the corners.

McCreedy nearly knocked Walchuk down in the first with a right hand, then rocked him again in the final 10 seconds of the round with another right. “Yeah, I thought I had him hurt but he’s a veteran,” McCreedy said. “I loaded up and tried to finish him. Between rounds, my trainer, Dick Eklund, grabbed me, settled me down and told me to throw combinations.”

Walchuk worked his way back into the fight in the second, giving McCreedy more movement and landing one-twos. McCreedy was the aggressor for most of the fight, landing the harder punches but did not have Walchuk in trouble for most of the rest of the fight.

The WBC Continental Americas, the vacant IBO Inter-Continental and UBF Intercontinental middleweight titles were at stake but because Adama, 21-3 (15) was a half-pound over at Friday’s weigh-in, he was ineligible to win the belts.

Brewer, 30-15 (16), outworked Adama for most of the early rounds. His hands were faster and he landed some good combinations to the body. In the sixth, after Adama controlled the tempo early in the round, Brewer finished with some strong uppercuts. Adama rallied in the final two rounds, landing the harder shots.

Bantamweight Josh Crespo of New Haven, Conn. picked up his first win when debuting Mike Martin of Lowell, Mass. didn’t answer the bell for the third round in a scheduled four. Crespo,1-1-1 (1), knocked down Martin in the second round.

Former New England Golden Gloves champion Russell Lamour of Portland, Maine survived a knockdown to earn a six-round unanimous decision over Eddie Caminero of Lawrence, Mass. at middleweight. The scores were 57-55 (twice) and 57-56. Lamour, who was also a participant in the World Series of Boxing, improved to 3-0 (1); Caminero dropped to 7-8 (7).

Both fighters were knocked down once. In the fourth round, Caminero dropped Lamour with an overhand right to the head.In the sixth, Lamour hit Caminero with a right to the head, forcing Caminero to touch a glove to the canvas.

Chris Traietti of Quincy, Mass. stopped Tyler Seever of St. Joseph, Mo. in the sixth round of a scheduled six at light heavyweight. Traietti, 11-3 (7), dropped Seever, 13-13-1 (11), four times (twice in the fifth and twice in the sixth) before referee Paul Casey stopped it at 1:50into the sixth. Casey almost stopped the fight after Traietti dropped Seever with a right hand in the first minute of the sixth. Casey reconsidered and the fight continued until Traietti put Seever on the mat with a left to the body. In the fifth, Traietti dropped Seever with a left to the body, then an overhand right just as the bell sounded.

In a four-round heavyweight bout, Boban Simic of Chicago stopped debuting Tyler King of Boston in the second round of a scheduled four. After two knockdowns, referee Eddie Claudio stopped the fight at 2:51. Simic is 2-0 (2). King, an MMA fighter, is a former NFL player.

The card was the first boxing event in the 15-year-old Tsongas Center, the home of UMass-Lowell’s hockey team. Some of the scenes from the movie “The Fighter” were filmed there.